Zechariah 14:1

All nations will be gathered together by the Lord against Jerusalem, and will take the city and plunder it, and lead away the half of its inhabitants into captivity (Zac 14:1, Zac 14:2). The Lord will then take charge of His people; He will appear upon the Mount of Olives, and by splitting this mountain, prepare a safe way for the rescue of those that remain, and come with all His saints (Zac 14:3-5) to complete His kingdom. From Jerusalem a stream of salvation and blessing will pour over the whole land (Zac 14:6-11); the enemies who have come against Jerusalem will be miraculously smitten, and destroy one another (Zac 14:12-15). The remnant of the nations, however, will turn to the Lord, and come yearly to Jerusalem, to keep the feast of Tabernacles (Zac 14:16-19); and Jerusalem will become thoroughly holy (Zac 14:20, Zac 14:21). From this brief description of the contents, it is perfectly obvious that our chapter contains simply a further expansion of the summary announcement of the judgment upon Israel, and its refinement (Zac 13:7-9). Zac 14:1, Zac 14:2 show how the flock is dispersed, and for the most part perishes; Zac 14:2-5, how the Lord brings back His hand over the small ones; vv. 6-21, how the rescued remnant of the nation is endowed with salvation, and the kingdom of God completed by the reception of the believers out of the heathen nations. There is no essential difference in the fact that the nation of Israel is the object of the prophecy in Zac 13:7-9, and Jerusalem in ch. 14. Jerusalem, as the capital of the kingdom, is the seat of Israel, the nation of God; what happens to it, happens to the people and kingdom of God. Zac 14:1-2 The judgment and the deliverance. - Zac 14:1. "Behold, a day cometh for Jehovah, and thy spoil is divided in the midst of thee…

God's providences concerning his church are here represented as strangely changing and strangely mixed. I. As strangely changing. Sometimes the tide runs high and strong against them, but presently it turns, and comes to be in favour of them; and God has, for wise and holy ends, set the one over against the other. 1. God here appears against Jerusalem; judgment begins at the house of God. When the day of the Lord comes (Zac 14:1) Jerusalem must pass through the fire to be refined. God himself gathers all nations against Jerusalem to battle (Zac 14:2); he gives them a charge, as he did Sennacherib, to take the spoil and to take the prey (Isa 10:6), for the people of Jerusalem have now become the people of his wrath. And who can stand before him or before nations gathered by him? Where he gives commission he will give success. The city shall be taken by the Romans, who have nations at command; the houses shall be rifled, and all the riches of them taken away, by the enemy; and, to gratify an insatiable lust of uncleanness as well as avarice, the women shall be ravished, as if victory were a license to the worst of villanies, jusque datum sceleri - and crimes were sanctioned by law. One-half of the city shall then be carried into captivity, to be sold or enslaved, and shall not be able to help itself, such is the destruction that shall be made in the great and terrible day of the Lord. 2. He presently changes his way, and appears for Jerusalem; for, though judgment begin at the house of God, yet, as it shall not end there, so it shall not make a full end there, Jer 4:27; Jer 30:11. (1.) A remnant shall be spared, the same with that third part spoken of, Zac 13:8. One-half shall go into captivity, whence they may hereafter be fetched back, and the residue of the people shal…

14:1-21 Zechariah closes with visions of judgment, salvation, and God’s universal kingdom. In the future, Israel would be besieged, teetering on the verge of total destruction, when the Lord himself would intervene and rescue his people (14:3-4) and punish their enemies with a terrible plague (14:12). Israel would be restored as God’s people, and Jerusalem would be exalted as the center of civilization (14:16-17). God’s rule would be established over all the earth (14:9), and the created order would be transformed (14:6-10). Fittingly, God’s holiness would be the pervasive characteristic of his rule over all the earth (14:20-21). Zechariah’s message stimulates the people of God to hope in the Sovereign King of Israel, who will bring justice and restoration. 14:1 The day of the Lord will bring judgment and deliverance and will reverse the fortunes of many (see Amos 5:18; cp. Matt 19:28-30; Luke 13:23-30).